svensson

"'Experience' is what you get, when you don't get what you want....' -- Randolph Pausch "'Adventure' is somebody else in deep shit far, far away from your comfy chair." -- Raj Whitehall [Dave Drake and SM Stirling] "If 'ignorance is bliss', why are there so many pissed off stupid people out there?" -- George Carlin And the one true 'words of wisdom' phrase that I can honestly say I came up with: "Remember that on any given day YOU are the idiot ruining somebody else's day. Just because you're a genius doesn't mean you can't be stupid. Stay humble."

Alright. I'd always considered Devise as more 'mechanical' than just simple devices... something involving gears, frankly... but alright. I can readjust my thinking on that one.

Doing a quick search, I'm having trouble finding Tales of the Reaching Moon issues anywhere. Well, other than the odd issue here and there that shows up on eBay at 'your nostalgia will be monetized' prices, anyway. Is there a source where we can download some of the old magazines a reasonable prices? I'm aware of Different Worlds being available. Thanks all.

So, a few days late but I think it's a solid suggestion for the OP's question... A good benefit /power reward for a Humakt heroquest would be immunity from some 'special' attacks by Undead, for example a ghoul's howl or a vampire's enthrall attack.

I'm fine with the idea that White Healer can use a shield to parry [and protect patients] with, but with two caveats: a] They begin the skill at base + Manipulation bonus, just as with Staff [WITHOUT any skill bonus for Homeland], and b] Certain First Aid skill functions require two hands, and it's reasonable to presume that certain magical spells need two hands as well. All this being said, a Sartarite or Esrolian war band might assign the healers [all the healing contingent, White Healers, Ernaldans, whomever] inexperienced youngsters to be shield-bearers and absolute last line of defense for the wounded. It would be an honorable assignment that would give the new initiates some campaign experience and seasoning without excessive risk.

If Chalana Arroy Healers are present in a clan's fyrd, they're going to have to defend themselves at some point... even if it's just from a missile barrage. And who would hurt a White Healer? Anybody with a Fanaticism or Berserk spell on them, that's who. And trolls, and broo, and dragonewts and beasts and Undead and a host of other Very Nasty Things. I have no problem with a Healer learning to use a staff if they don't attack with it. As for the 'can't train it', my ruling on that would be that the skill would start at base + Manipulation bonus and must be learned through skill checks [aka practice]. None of that violates the spirit of the restrictions on Healers

Happy to provide grist for the mill 😀 And yes, the game does get into the idea that no doctor-patient privilege is going to cover tentacles appearing out of the middle of a wall 😄 Telling your counselor/psychiatrist too much is as harmful as not telling them enough, from a therapeutic SAN-recovery standpoint. A DG operative could easily find himself involuntarily committed and being court-ordered to take psychotropic anti-hallucinatories. Or red-flagged as an asocial anger-management problem that has their firearms rights or security credentials [FBI credentials, for example] revoked. An EXCELLENT summary for Delta Green is the 'Need To Know' book, available from drivethrurpg. It's a great condensation of the Agent's and Handler's [referee] rulebooks and gives you a solid idea of the setting at a very affordable price.

Casting the net just a little wider, Delta Green's system for SAN loss is just as devastating. DG characters have 'bonds', people who are important to them - - the people DG operatives fight the Mythos for. But the more operations you go on, the more exposure you have to the Mythos, the more SAN you lose, the easier it is to damage or lose a bond-relationship. This means that as you gain experience you also erode the support system that is so important for you to regain that SAN. On a personal note, I am a mental health patient with PTSD. The process of 'the better at your job you get, the crazier you get, the less support you have' rings very true to my experiences. I'm not bringing this up to elicit sympathy or 'thoughts and prayers'. My intention to is just to explain why I think the DG system is authentic to the processes of mental health damage [aka SAN loss] and recovery. Just as in CoC, DG has processes by which SAN can be regained on a permanent basis, but the patient [aka the PC] must be willing to repair or form new bonds and make an especial point of maintaining them.

A simple solution to the passenger deck is to simply add another deck to midship wheel tower. Another solution is to use partial deck plans... isolate the bridge deck, the passenger deck, the engineering deck, and a cargo hold. That way you don't need a full and complete deck plan where all the stairwells match up and everything is perfect. BTW, fellow Washingtonian here. I'm down in Tacoma /Lakewood. And the forest fire smoke could lay off a bit, eh?

As you say, to the unprofessional eye there isn't a lot of difference in merchant steamers. I have a thought might... maybe?... help a bit. Have you thought of looking up World War Two Liberty Ships? You know, the quickly built merchant ships that the US churned out by the hundreds to replace those lost to U-Boats? A quick search turned up several images that might be suitable for you. You'll have to 'demilitarize' them somewhat... telling players that the AA guns aren't there... but they are the essential ship you're looking for... a coal or oil-fired boiler ship designed to haul lots of cargo. Note: Include 'WWII' in your search or you'll end up with a Carnivale Cruise ship. Wikilink on Liberty Ships below: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship

A specialty of the Donadar cult 😉

With Weapon Attack and Weapon Parry now being the same skill [in earlier editions, they were separated and each had their own percentages], I can see your point. But a staff has more functionality as a nonlethal weapon than a bow does and the additional Magic Points are pretty important. I would have to think long and hard about a Healer [be it Chalana Arroy or Apollo/Hippocrates] training to Trip or Disarm attackers and whether that constituted 'doing harm', but Parrying is still OK in my opinion.

But wouldn't you go to an actual craftsman for that? Maybe something temporary? Not bad suggestions. And I'm wondering about the typo myself.

A question came up in my game last night about the skills received in the Healer occupation in RQG character generation. Healers get 10 percentage points in the Devise skill. Why is that? As I understand it, Devise is the skill to use or design most mechanical devices more complicated than, say, a pulley or lever. With it, players can figure out the workings of a water mill or pick a lock. So, why would a Healer need that skill? Splinting a bone is pretty simple stuff and is easily covered in First Aid. The availability of reliable magic to knit flesh and bone pretty much does away with most of the Bronze Ancients and Medieval period's more advanced tools [traction rigs for beds, screw clamps, etc.]

Maps would be rare, for one thing. Not many people have need of an actual map because 90% of the directions they'll receive will be via landmarks. "Follow the river about half a day's walk until you come to a stream feeding in on the other side. You'll know it's the right stream because it has a great big boulder on the shore where it enters the river. From there turn left...." I agree that Lhankor Mhy, Issaries, and the very existence of reliable magic would tend to make maps more accurate, but they're certainly not going to be topographic or surveyed. For that matter, you'll notice that very little of the Glorantha art as done by Gloranthan artists uses perspective at all. All this tells me that maps will tend to be 'poetic' rather than absolutely GPS accurate. If it was my game, I'd rule that the map in the frontspiece [the map between the cover and the credits page] of the Glorantha Bestiary would be a good example of a high quality map.

Lately, I've been thinking about giving out 'utility' items as rewards to players in my faux-Atlantis game. These are items or spells that have no specific combat function [unless the player is being REALLY clever] but make an adventurer's life a little easier. These are not designed to utterly remove problems or skill check opportunities, just to be a tool for help with them. The items ought to have little combat use and should not prevent the players from being clever... they should be tools not solutions for problems. Some examples include: - Well fitting boots or sandals that reduce fatigue from marching - A cloak that magically keeps the occupant in a comfortable temperature range; it won't help against Fire or Cold combat magic, but the occupant won't get heatstroke or frostbite - A 'heat rock' that warms food or drink without the need of an open flame Any other suggestions for such items? The items could be alchemical, or master-crafted, or magical [of a very low level 'cantrip' type] in nature. They should be hard to acquire and of enough assistance to be a reward but not powerful enough to be quest goal in and of themselves.

@Joerg Gloranthan humans aren't cannibals. Or, I don't see how you would call them such. I would think humans would see the consumption of human flesh as Chaotic behavior. OGRES and GHOULS are cannibals, and I would think most humans would want to separate themselves from that behavior. Elvish 'cannibalism' is just that a Green Elf can pluck a leaf off of a Brown Elf's head and eat it and it's no bother. I DON'T contend that Elves consume the entire body of their dead like Uz do. But they don't cremate their dead, as Orlanthi do, either. They place the corpses beneath the forest floor to nourish all the life within it. And, well, you're not likely to get cholera or dysentery from decomposing plants. My 'when in Rome' comment is that strangers tend to follow the local customs when in a foreign environment. The wise traveler tries to do so within certain broad sensibilities. Steamed eyeballs are a delicacy in some parts of the world, but I'd have to work pretty hard to eat one myself. When American service-women take liberty in Arabic countries, they are given a shayla to wear [it's a type of head scarf, as the hijab is another type, in the same way that a keffiya and a shamagh are different head scarves for men] to avoid offending local rules. So while an Elf would not be expected to eat meat, they would be expected to be patient while others did so. OTOH, a human would have to expect to bring his own rain covering in an Elf Woods, as the Elves do not build them themselves, and refrain from any use of fire while visiting them. Cults offer similar rituals, but they won't be precisely the same. I know several Baptist missionaries who support churches in Kenya. I am told that the liturgy is the same in all the points of dogma, but the practice of that liturgy can be very different. The music is often very different and Kenyans use more dance in worship than most American churches do, for example. I think of that as a good analogy for bridging the racial divide in the same cult. Ernalda is going to look very different in Tarnisi's Grove than it will in Clearwine Temple, but the basic beliefs, holidays, and core ritual practices will be the same. I don't think that being a member of the same cult makes a foreigner identify with the local culture. I think it gives them an avenue to understand the local culture if the person chooses to take it. You're going to find xenophobes in every society, people who refuse to see the common bonds with anyone they don't know personally. But common religious beliefs [not practices, beliefs] are a way to bridge that gap for those willing to try. Would a Vronkali Green Elf engage in the Riddle Contest with a human Orlanth cultist? That would depend on whether or not he had a Gold Wheel to bet and whether and how familiar he is with human cultures. Remember, the Riddle Contest is demanded by ORLANTH not Yelmalio. As for sleep schedules, I would think that no type of Aldryami gets much sleep in Sea Season... the bursting of new growth effects them as much as the ferns and shrubs and trees. They may not be able to calm down enough to sleep, though that's a YGMV situation. But Aldryami are tied to the Man Rune as much as the Plant Rune. They can adjust their sleep schedules to account for watch schedules. What's more, the Gardeners plant many alarm-plants on the most common avenues of approach specifically to warn them of incursion by anyone who isn't supposed to be there.

Well, an initiate of two cults must abide by the strictures of both of them. This means that an initiate of Chalana Arroy may never used a bow to fire at an enemy. No, I don't buy the 'shoot to wound' argument. 'Do No Harm' and all that. But I see no reason why their initiation seed could not grow into a staff with AP to block with and the extra MP to power Spirit Magic with.

OK, it is probably germane to note that Aldryami are near-cannibals. The Fertility Rune acknowledges Death as part of the cycle of Life... that which was once a consumer will one day be consumed themselves. This, Simba, is the circle of life..... As for Aldryami relations with humans, it's possible to be an 'elf-friend' on an individual basis even if the local Aldryami don't trust humanity in general. Besides, it's a golden RP opportunity. Elves [as differentiated from Dryads, Runners, etc.] will be as uncomfortable in any Human society as a Human would in an Aldryami one. Efforts will have to be made by all parties to be forgiving and understanding of one another in order to get along. 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do' and all that... This discomfort is eased by the elf being a member of a cult that the local humans can understand. The discomfort never goes away, really: no matter the cult the Aldryami will have motivations that are never completely understood by Humans. But being able to bridge the society gap with religious rituals is a comfort to both parties and one method of making the mysterious less threatening. So if an Aldryami character wishes to initiate into a second cult, it will largely depend on their profession /role within Aldryami society. After all, the Elf Bow of a High King Elf subcult initiate is going to do a Chalana Arroy initiate very little good. At my table, I'd rule that their Elf seed become a staff instead, but that's me. Most Elves become members of the Marching Aldryami, the forest's active defenders. This tends to lean towards a warrior /guardsman outlook, although support caster [Ernalda] or healer [Chalana Arroy] or herald /negotiator [Issaries] are also valued roles.

I's think that was more an Ernalda thing, but ....

When in doubt, use the Godsday in the middle of Sacred Time as the High Holy Day. While Earth is associated with eroticism and sexuality, 'Clayday' just doesn't have a very attractive ring to it.

We'd like to have you for lunch. I think you'd go well with mushroom gravy and a gallon of Powzie.... 🤣

We're waiting [with baited breath and mighty anticipation] for the God of Glorantha and Proserpaedia for RQG to come out. That'll be THE reference about the gods, myths, etc. and will correct /revise a fair amount of inconsistencies. Be patient on that one... it's in the works, but it's a lot of work. The big hold up right now appears to be artwork. Until that comes out, and I'd recommend getting this anyway, check out the Cults Compendium for RQ2. That has the 'who likes who and how much' table we're all referring to in it. RQ3 had a boxed set called Gods of Glorantha, but it is sadly out of print.

[laughs at shameless - -though wholly understandable- - plug]

There are ways to play an Aldryami in a primarily Human game. The basic choice for you is 'Aldrya or Aldrya and Who'. That is to say, 99% of eligable Aldryami are initiated into the High King Elf subcult of Aldrya at maturity. Some also initiate into a second cult if it provides significant enough benefits. The most common second cult among adventuring Aldryami is Yelmalio. The key benefit to Yelmalio is that it provides a way for Aldryami to ritually interact with most Humans... it's almost like a 'cultural diplomatic service'. Between the familial links with Ernalda and a Yelmalio link, an Aldryami has access to most human cultures in Dragon Pass. In order to initiate into a second cult, both cults have to Friendly or Associated with each other. The following cults are available to an Aldrya initiate: Chalana Arroy, Daka Fal, Ernalda, Eiritha, Gorakiki, Mallia, Nysalor/Gbaji, Pavis, Seven Mothers, Yelm, Yelmalio, Yelorna, Zola Fel [River Gods]. I admit a couple of these are surprises... Mallia [mother of Disease], Nysalor [the Illuminate], and Seven Mothers. The first two is because of their obvious Chaos affiliation and the Seven Mothers surprises me because the Lunar Empire burned down two healthy Elf Forests [including the Shanassee Tree] during its expansions - - I would have assumed they'd not be on friendly terms at all under those conditions.